The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1887-11-03

g | within few days all of these mel
n were arrested without warrants, com
e mitted to Jail and held there Withou
examination and without process unit
= they were indicted by grand jury
{ and to describe simple crime, if crime
: it was, the states attorney had to draw
D an indictment Of sixty-nine counts
] During the trial the judge allowed
: questions to be asked with regard to {
' conspiracy, although in all the sixty
3 nine counts of the Indictment there was
Z no conspiracy alleged. He said
that The was ready to pledge himself
3 that there was not a single man of the
: jury selected who had not said that he
: had a finland some of them an en-
, thuSiastic conviction, opinion, and
prejudice against the defendants. AT
} ter referring to the composition of the
jury, dissatisfaction with the record,
lack of time for preparation, the sem
: fencing of the prisoners in their alb
, sence, and that of their counsel, the
search and SEIZURE" etc, General
Butler said that if all these things
could be done, the question to be de-
bated was whether this government
would not be little better if it were
anarchy than if it were to be carried on
in this fashion" II have no fear, =" he
said, ''of being misunderstood upon
/
| OF being the only man in the United
States that condemned and executed
men for undertaking to overturn the
law. There were thousands of them,
and for that act, please your honors,
price was set on my head as
| though were wolf, and $25, 900 was
| offered to any man that could capture
me; to murder me by Jefferson Davis
| and his associates, and who, If they
were here at your bar trying to ascer-
tain whether they should have an hon
est and fair trial for their great crimes,
| and they called upon neither lives in
| DANGER should hold it to be my duty
| to stand here and do all that / might to
| defend them. This is the chivalry of
the law if understand it and if don't,
| 1t is not of much consequence, for l
am quite easily and quickly passing
| away. After some further talk Gen
| eral Butler said he agreed fully that
| the first ten amendments of the con-
stitution were limitations of federal
| power, and no restriction of the rights
of the states. The privileges and
immunities,' however, claimed by
these prisoners were privileges in
| herent in each one of the citizens of
the several states of the United States,
because in vast majority, we
were British subjects, and had
| certain privileges and immunities
inherited under the common law and
| the magma charta, and among them,
| and the most thoroughly known and
| defined, were the trial by jury for all
| high crimes, exemption from search and
seizure without warrant OF law, pro-
lection from self accusation as wit
ness, and not to be deprived of life,
liberty or property without due process
| of law. We claim that all rights priv
ileges and immunities that belonged to
a British subject under the
magma charter belong to each
citizen of the United States,
| and that as new citizens of the United
States were made, not citizens of
states, by naturalization, these rights,
| privileges and immunitieS came to
| them as citizens of the United States.
| The effect of the fourteenth amend
ment was to guarantee these rights,
privileges and immunities to the citiz-
ems of all the states. The words ''due
process of law as contained in the
fourteenth amendment, and as used to
define one of these guaranteed rights
mean ''by the law of the land, - not the
| law OF the county, a province,
or state, but the law of
| the country, the whole county:
| that is the law of the land, and was so
understood by our forefathers as "due
process of law" Any other meaning
/
| used in the fourteenth amendment
/ would make it simply ridiculous and
| frivolous, because any state may enact
a ''due process of law" according to
that state by which a mans life may
be taken, and from which not a single
right or immunity of citizenship can
protect him. Any law state may make
after the passage of this amendment
for dealing with the rights of a citizen
of the United States, becomes wholly
imperative because the claw of the
land, must forever remain fixed as at
that moment, not to be changed in re-
gard to its citizens without change of
| organic law, and for some purposes,
not to be even so changed. General
Butler then proceeded to considera-
ton of the special and peculiar
questions raised by the cases
of Fielden and Spies, who are
foreigners. He commended that the
treaties were the supreme law of the
land, and that these prisoners were
entitled by virtue of treaties with Ger
many and Great Britain to all the
rights and privileges of American citi-
Zenship at the time such treaties were
made. a state had no power to try
these men by one of its own laws
which was not the law of the land at
the time the treaties were ratified.
| He did not mean, he said
that foreigner could come
into state and break its
laws with impunity, and that the state
could not touch him. but he did mean
that the state could only try him in ac-
cordance with the law of the land-the
whole land-at the time the treaty
| with his government was made. This
ne said, was an important question to
every American citizen, because in re-
turn for the concessions made by this
government in the treaty with Great
Britain, the government of that coun-
try had made similar concessions to us.
Suppose that citizen of the United
States should go to Ireland and
should make some remarks about
| the advantages of a republican
form OF government, and shall be ar
rested and tried by the crimes act in
violation of the treaty, would we not
stand by and say that this man must
be tried by fair and impartial jury.
| lie must be tried as an EngliShman
would have been tried at the time the
treaty was made, and he cannot be
dealt with in more summary way
under latter law. If this should hap
pen, General Butler said, he hoped that
the English authorities would not be
able to hold up to hin. him
Supreme court sustaining the
right to try an Englishman by the local
law of a state which was nothing but a
swamp, a bowling wilderness, at the
time the treaty was ratified. Return
ing to the rights of states General But
Ter said that he was not prepared to
deny that state might change its or
1ganic law with the consent of all its
citizens, but such changes would not
bind a citizen of another state which
had not assented to them. After some
desultory remarks about the record and
the necessity of having it before the
court, and another reference to br G ak
, ing open safes and desks General But
, Ter said: There is no boubt that the
prisoners were entitled to trial by an
impartial jury-stuped jury if you
please, because / don't think a man
who reads newspapers is any the more
competent to try case, rather worse
if he pays any attention to their lies.
AS enunciated by the chief justice OF
| the supreme court an impartial juror
} he said, is one who stands
! in freedom of mind, without